Thirsty Sands (Part 11)

2019-9-24

Thirsty Sands (Part 11)

Jafar Rabiei

Design: Ali Vaziri

First published in 1991

Publishing House, Islamic Propagation Organization

Printed at the Aryan

Preparations for our transfer to the camp were made. They came to us and forced us to get on the buses, which had seats and were in no way suitable for transfer of the injured. The Iraqis grasped the back of hospital shirts we had worn and dragged us to the end of the bus. Qain had overtaken all our bodies, but we were in conditions that we were stripped of any possibility to protest or raise our voices even out of pain. The condition of one of the POWs, Majid Sadeghian - one of the POWs released in khordad 64- was the worst of all. That he had many deep wounds were talk of the captives of the operation launched    in the camp.

Meanwhile, his small age aggravated the condition and this made us forget our own pains. I thought to myself that when the Iraqi n1edical tcan1 treated the captives this way, we would definitely be under greater pressure in future. In addition to losing one leg he had also several other wounds.

The bus started 1naning. To carry four injured POWs who were hardly able to move from their places. They had no less than 10 armed soldiers for escort scattered over several seats so as to accomplish their mission with utmost care and courage observing security rules! After riding a course lasting around an hour the bus topped and after a few moments four Iranians together with several Iraqis entered the bus. We recognized the Iranians from the name plates on their chests.

They had come to take us down from the bus. Apparently we had reached the camp. Two of them came over to me and said: “hello”. After responding to his greeting, while hatred strongly choked my throat, I said: “They are like beasts.”

One of them named Hussein said: “Don’t say such thing here. Be careful, they know Persian. If they hear you, they will create bitter days for you. So always be careful of your words.” They took us down from the bus on stretchers and placed us down on the ground in front of the sanatorium. The Iraqis were standing around us not allowing other Iranian POWs who were roaming around the camp to approach us. The combatants in the yard expressed their enthusiasm for us, each in his own way. One of them hc1n waved his hands. Another shouted, “Don't be worried.” while passing by from a distance of two or three meters. In brief, each of them displayed affection in a different manner. After about half an hour the Iraqis noted down our names and our brother POWs cut out heads and washed us with lukewarm water. Then we entered a sleeping-room reserved for the injured.

It was here where I learnt many lessons. Those POWs who had been for a long time in    the prisons of the Zionist enemy, taught us lessons. They taught us how to fight empty-handedly with the enemy’s material weapons.

They used every means to crush us. By increasingly cutting our daily essentials, they wanted to bring us to our knees. However, one learnt how to resist strongly and proudly and make them understand that mental and physical pressures cannot force the men who firmly believe in their goal out of the arena of struggle.

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The POWs camp had a total of 24 sleeping quarters divided into three sections. Each section was called “Qate”. The Qates had been numbered “Qate One”, was reserved for officers; “Qate two”, for Basijis; and “Qate Three” contained the Basijis and the Army. In Qate one, due to small number of officers taken prisoner, four sleeping halls had been turned into temporary clinics and those wounded in the operations were kept there. In Oate three also two halls had been designed for this purpose.

Each one of the three Qates had independent bath and toilet facilities. The area in the camp shared by all the Qates was the kitchen of the camp and a small room used us a doctor’s clinic. An Iraqi doctor came twice a week to visit the wounded there. These two places were located in Qate one. The POWs kept at this camp were about 900 in number.

On the day of our arrival in the camp we took baths with cold water inside the hall number 17 which was temporarily kept for hospitalization of wounded POWs. There, seeing our other of our combatants, even though their faces had become pale with weakness, gave fresh hope to our hearts. From the time of arrival into the hall to the transfer to our own special places, we were chased by pure, innocent looks of our combatants. It appeared that with their looks they wanted to convince us that there it was the beginning of the path.

Two Iraqi guard who accompanied us continuously nagged at us in a bad temper and with sullen scowls, giving order to those who had held the two sides of the stretcher. One said: “Place them here!” The other showed another place. They did not agree on where to place us. Each tried to enforce his own opinion. In the meantime, a doctor who had been taken prisoner from among the Iranians and who was engaged in treating our combatants assigned special places for us, thus saving the two Iraqi soldiers from more debate among themselves. After the soldiers left us the doctor came over and while examining our wounds introduced himself. We also made ourselves known to him and gave him a brief account of  the condition of our captivity and transfer to the camp. The doctor asked us about Iran’s situation and we gave him the news concerning Iran as much as we knew. At the end of our talk the doctor advised us on some points he had experienced over two years of his captivity up to that time. Among the pieces of advice he gave us was that we should be wary of our words. He further advised us never to give out our internal secrets and the facts of the situation we were in inside the military organ to the enemy. The doctor stressed that we should not disclose the problems and situations we  faced in Iran even to our best friends whom we will find and whose number will not be small, “not because you cannot rely on them but because you may cause trouble for your friends.” The enemy would harass our friends so as to wrest information from us, the doctor said, adding that the enemy’s lack of information about our secrets will thwart the enemy’s pressure. In dealing with the Iraqis, he warned, we should not show excessive stubbornness, as a result of which we may be identified unknowingly, nor should we treat them with cheerful faces so as to sharpen their covetous teeth to exploit us. He further said, “These are some general facts knowledge of which is essential for you at the beginning of your captivity. The rest of the problems you will experience and taste with your own entire tissues through the passing of time in the camp.”

To be continued …